After tribals, Rahul to meet Haryana students

New Delhi: After meeting the tribals of Niyamgiri in Orissa, Rahul Gandhi is headed for Haryana to meet students.

The Congress general secretary is scheduled to visit Hisar, Kurukshetra and Karnal on Friday to interact with students.

Rahul has been focusing on farmers too after protests in UP over land acquisition flared up.

In fact, the Opposition in the state led by Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD) Ajit Singh came together on the issue yet again as thousands of farmers marched to the Capital to protest on Thursday.

Farmers from UP were protesting against land acquisition for the Yamuna Expressway by the UP government.

The protest started in Aligarh earlier this month. Many people in the political fraternity are now willing to take ownership of the agitation.

Ajit Sngh's RLD is at the forefront and is supported by nearly all parties in the Opposition. "Last year, the farmers took the sugarcane protest to Delhi. If the government is unfair to farmers, they will not let it live in peace. The government has to listen to us," he said.

It's a tactic farmer leadership from Western UP has often used in the past.

Last year, farmers demanding remunerative sugarcane price marched to Parliament at the onset of the harvest season.

In 1978, Ajit Singh's father and deputy Prime Minister Charan Singh brought Delhi to a standstill on his birthday as a show of strength and to challenge PM Morarji Desai.

Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Mahendra Singh Tikait led two sit-ins at Boat Club in 1988 and 1991 and again the city was thrown out of gear.

But the message from the farmers' gathering in Delhi is clear. Like the nuke bill, the government will have to take the Opposition on board on the issue of amendments on the land acquisition law as well or these parties can gang up in the Rajya Sabha to stall the legislation.

"We will have to be taken on board. The PM should call a meeting of all political parties to solve this issue," said Arun Jaitley, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

The land acquisition law is pending with the government for three years now. With the stakes high for the Congress in the next assembly elections in UP, the bill may finally see the light of the day in the next session of Parliament.